Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

So very ready.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

This blog will pay for itself.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

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Thursday Afternoon Open Thread

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I’m not sure what products I viewed online to make the algorithm think I’m interested in human dog beds, but I’m seeing this ad a lot lately:

Giant dog bed with person in it

At first I scoffed and had cloud-shouty thoughts about what the world is coming to when people lie down in human-sized dog beds. What’s next, I wondered, lapping up beverages with our tongues and sticking our faces into dinnerware sets of metal bowls containing quinoa?

But you know, that human-sized dog bed looks pretty comfy, assuming that the pad underneath is thick enough. Not saying I’d ever buy one, but I will not judge those who do.

Open thread!

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Supreme Court 14th Amendment Arguments 10 am Eastern (LIVE)

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Oral arguments at the Supreme Court begin at 10 am ET.

Link to the Supreme Court audio on the Supreme Court website.

C-SPAN link

If you’re on the go and want to listen on the radio:

Airing Details

Feb 08, 2024 | 10:00am EST | C-SPAN RADIO
Feb 08, 2024 | 10:00am EST | C-SPAN 1
Feb 08, 2024 | 8:30pm EST | C-SPAN 1
Feb 09, 2024 | 5:00am EST | C-SPAN 1

This should be interesting.  At least we don’t have to see their faces.  Josh Marshall described Boof (h/t Almost Retired) on his podcast last night as “hale and well-met”, a guy that wants to be a buddy and be well-liked, and I thought I might vomit.  I was shocked that Josh would describe him like that.  I suspect that only a man could think of Boof without thinking “angry, entitled, liar and rapist” – not in that order!

*I should say that I generally like Josh Marshall.  This is the second time he had made a comment, on an issue related to women, that I thought was utterly clueless, and it has surprised me both times.  If it happens a third time, I will no longer be surprised.

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Thursday Morning Open Thread: We’re Winning, Step By Step

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Also, President Joe would love doing this!
Thursday Morning Open Thread 16

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On The Road – arrieve – The Suez Canal part 1

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arrieve

Apologies in advance for the long introduction:

I have always wanted to sail through the Suez Canal—maybe I’ve just watched Lawrence of Arabia too many times but if I kept a list of really cool things I wasn’t likely ever to do, transiting the Suez Canal would definitely have been on it.

I wanted to take a trip over Christmas and finally use up all of the miles and points and credits that I’ve accumulated, many of them from trips I had to cancel in 2020. And I found a cruise from Athens to Aqaba, Jordan that not only went through the canal, but also had several stops in Egypt, including the Valley of the Kings. It was a lot of money, but I decided it would be my post-pandemic splurge. I tacked on several days in Jerusalem at the King David hotel after the cruise, and a business class flight home, all for free. I was really excited.

Then the war started. Jerusalem was no longer an option. The itinerary changed to remove the stop in the Sinai. Then Alexandria and the Valley of the Kings were cancelled. And then the Houthis started lobbing missiles at ships in the Red Sea.

I assumed that the cruise would be cancelled. It had to be cancelled, right? It was not. It turns out that travel insurance policies exclude war and civil disturbance as valid reasons for cancelling a trip; it was not something I had ever had to think about before.  So while I could of course choose not to go on the trip, I would not get any of my money back.

It was not just the money, or concerns about safety. It honestly felt a little obscene to be taking a vacation anywhere near the horrific situation in Gaza. But the cruise was not cancelled, and despite a couple of suitcases worth of misgivings, I went.

And it was mostly lovely. There was a recent thread where people were expressing some strong opinions about cruising. I had not been on a cruise ship in at least a dozen years (not counting the less than luxurious expedition ships in Antarctica and the Galapagos), but I did always like that whole “unpack once” thing. And I always got a room with a balcony so I could sit and read and watch the waves and avoid my fellow passengers as much as I wanted. I wasn’t planning to ever go on a cruise again, but the itinerary—at least the original itinerary—was irresistible. I actually loved life on the ship. It was a smaller ship, and half-empty, so there were about 250 passengers. And though I am very much a “I’d rather do it myself, thanks” type of person, it was fun to be waited on and to be able to have pretty much anything I wanted whenever I wanted it.

The final itinerary was kind of a Mediterranean hopscotch, having to make up for the three stops in Egypt that were cancelled. We went to Crete, then Nafplio on the mainland, then Ephesus in Türkiye (with the clocks turned ahead an hour) then Rhodes (with the clocks turned back again), then back to Crete. And on New Year’s Eve, we transited the Suez Canal.

On The Road – arrieve – The Suez Canal part 1Post + Comments (22)

On The Road - arrieve - The Suez Canal part 1 9
Suez Canal, EgyptDecember 31, 2023

The captain had announced that we would arrive at the canal at 3:30 in the morning, so I thought that we’d already be in it by the time I woke up. But we didn’t start the actual transit until it was light, so I got to see sunrise over the waters around Port Said.

Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Mitch McConnell, the Lyin’ in Winter

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To highlight a powerful statement from Adam’s Ukraine update, last Sunday:

McConnell broke the Senate in order to accumulate the power to achieve a very specific set of political objectives: 1) to cut taxes for the wealthy, 2) to remove as many regulations on the wealthy and on businesses as possible, 3) to remove as many campaign finance regulations as possible to ensure it was legal for the wealthy to shovel obscene amounts of money at him and his caucus members making them wealthy beyond their dreams, and 4) to pack the courts with Federalist Society apparatchiks who would both do through the judicial process what he could not accomplish legislatively and, perhaps more importantly, ensure that none of this could ever be reversed by Democratic presidents working with Democratic majority Congresses.

What McConnell did not foresee that in doing so he was hollowing out the Republican Party and the conservative movement – including the white traditionalist Catholic and white evangelical churches – that sustain it. The result of McConnell’s labors is that instead of one Republican Party and one conservative movement, we now have dozens. The one the Kochs fund, the one the Mercers fund, the one the Uhliens fund, the one Art Pope funds in NC, the one the DeVos/Prince clan funds, etc, etc, etc. In some cases these ultra-high net worth individuals just buy their own Republican officials. Peter Thiel owns JD Vance. A multi-millionaire in Miami created the political career of Marco Rubio. And it was into this hollow shell of a party and a movement that Donald Trump, ever looking for his next set of marks and preternaturally capable of identifying them, recognized that he could just waddle right in and execute a hostile takeover for pennies on the dollar. And, in fact, get others to provide the pennies for him to do so.

Now that McConnell wants something else from his caucus, as well as their counterparts in the House for his “legacy”… he’s not going to get it.

But never forget who the architect of the current moment is. Sure he had accomplices like Leonard Leo and Don McGahn and a host of others you’ve never heard of, but we are where we are because McConnell had four objectives and he was willing to and did break every rule, norm, and tradition to achieve them.

Could not happen to a more deserving elderly villain.

From the Politico story — “Behind the border mess: Open GOP rebellion against McConnell”:

… McConnell, now nearing his 82nd birthday, is determined to fund the Ukrainian war effort, a push his allies have depicted as legacy-defining. But now that his party is set on Wednesday to reject a bipartisan trade of tougher border policies for war funding, his far-right critics are speaking out more loudly: Several held a press conference Tuesday where they denounced his handling of the border talks, with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) calling on McConnell to step down.

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Wednesday Night Open Thread

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Another busy day today. Had a bunch of work work to do and then a bunch of things I wanted to do around the house. I wanted to go in and clean out the detached laundry room and organize that because that is where we have decided to store all the dog and cat crates and the like when animals are not in transit. Because Joelle always has lots going on in the dog side of things (owning her own, picking up strays, etc.), she has a bunch of crates and I brought a bunch and well you get the point- they need someplace to go. More accurately- I need for there to be a place for all of them to go. They are perfectly fine where they are. I’m the fucking lunatic who needs for their to be a place for them to go.

***

It occurred to me while cooking dinner that if the reason the Republicans in the House were going to impeach Mayorkas was for ostensibly not doing his job, does it not logically follow that the Republicans should impeach themselves for not being able to do their fucking jobs? Whatever.

Dinner was good- nothing sensational- thawed out that steak that I got a couple weeks ago at Fry’s and reverse seared that with some mushrooms and onions the way Joelle likes, and I was in the mood for fries so cut up a couple russets and double fried them. Not the most heart healthy meal, but whatever. My bag of vegetable scraps in the freezer is full so I needed the bone from the steak to make beef stock, and it was cheap since it was in the freezer.

***

One of the things that I noticed here that is weird is I kept seeing little colorful balls of stuff stuck here and there on the ground by the sidewalks. Especially if they had any vegetation/weeds and a rock garden- it really stands out there with the contrast. So I looked, and realized that it is dryer lint! And I realized this isn’t a problem near me because we’re not that close together and we have birds snagging that stuff up the moment it comes out to build nests. As it is I hang balls of cotton from my trees and have to replace it several times in the spring and summer.

The only birds I see with any regularity down here are the gi-FUCKING-normous pigeons that chill on the power line behind our house. When I sit in the back yard with the dogs, they are always out there. Also, I regret to inform you that Joelle is a bird racist and does not like pigeons. I asked her why and she said “Because they shit on everything” while scrunching up her nose and all I could think was you just agreed to take Thurston full time and I have never seen anything shit like he does.

Whatever. I like the pigeons and throw them bread scraps when we have them out in the front yard. We kinda fucked pigeons over, people did. We domesticated them and used them for food for thousands of years and then for communication and took them everywhere and now they’re feral but still almost completely reliant on human activity, and are who they are because we made them that way. So they kinda got a raw deal from us. And I understand the hygiene and sanitation implications. But still, they don’t deserve the hate.

Speaking of feral, here is a picture of Max:

Wednesday Night Open Thread 2

He was looking down at all the dogs and debating violence. Vicious panther- a real bastard, that cat.

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War for Ukraine Day 714: Russia Unloads on Ukraine Today

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Screen shot of new artwork by NEIVANMADE. The background is black. In the bottom foreground are grey Ukrainian homes and apartment buildings being bombarded by red Russian missiles with the Special Military Operation "Z" symbol on them. Above the missiles, written in red is the word "Ruzzians". Below the buildings being attacked is the statement "Turns Homes Into Graves".

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Quick housekeeping notes. It was a very long day, not bad, just long, so this is going to be as brief as possible. Second, I’m tracking on hrprogressive’s question from last night. I’m not going to be able to get to it tonight, but I will make an effort to get to it tomorrow night or Friday.

This morning, russia launched another massive air attack on Ukraine, using 20 Shaheds and 44 missiles of different types.

The Ukrainian air defense shot down 44 air targets:
– 26 Kh-101/Kh-555/Kh-55 cruise missiles;
– 3 Kalibr cruise missiles;
– 15 Shahed UAVs.

We are grateful to our brave air defenders and our international partners who help us strengthening air defense capabilities.

Much more on this after the jump.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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